Category Archives: Blogs

Laura Read and I have been following each other’s blogs for some time and so agreed to review each other’s novels with honest reviews. It is always refreshing as an author to read reviews like this and to learn from them.

Murder, now and then available on Amazon Click on the cover link

Here is an extract:

‘The novel reminds me of the TV series Midsomer Murders, with strong themes of family, time and place featuring throughout. Diana describes all of the various suspects in detail, and frequently changes perspective to tell her story and reveal more clues. Her descriptions of the locations in Bedfordshire and Jersey, as well as how she brings her characters to life, are what make the story.’

I take her points about technology and politics. Having written the story in 2013 the world was changing but I tried to predict short term future ~ a dangerous game when the novel is only launched in 2015 and the novel begins in 2016 and it is still circulating in 2017. I will have a more detailed blog post about this shortly.

Laura’s crime writing is much darker than mine. She refers to ‘Murder Now and Then’ as cosy in comparison, which is probably why it has been read in libraries. I am happy with that description since it focuses on the mystery and intrigue rather than the gritty nature of the murders.

I am in the middle of reading ‘Deadly Sins’ at the moment and I’ll review it due course, but I wish her all the luck in the world in her writing career.

Rewarding, Mutually supportive, fun, uplifting, encouraging, delightful … ~ oh that was so good! In an adjective deprived literary universe it is such a relief to let them flow, especially when talking about the blogging world. An author who ignores this gift of reaching out to other bloggers in the community of writers, deprives themselves of so much … love … yes love!

I’m sure that signing up for a Blog Tour is a good experience too, but there is nothing like reaching out and making ‘on line’ relationships, in the pure sense of the word, with like minded people and the benefits are far greater than selling a few more books – you make friendships which are lasting, often crossing social media to Twitter and Facebook.

My heart-felt thanks today are in no particular order, but here are some very special people whom I’ve been privilege to have ‘met’ over the last couple of years. You can click on the name for a link to their website or blog:

TME Walsh ~ I ‘met’ Tania through mutually sharing the same publishing company for our debut novel. She is now with Carina UK, an imprint of Harlequin – a division of HarperCollins – in 2015 with her DCI Claire Winters Series

Tony Riches ~ ‘The Writing Desk.’ Tony is a writer of Historical Fiction which have been best sellers on Amazon. His latest ‘Owen’ – the first of a Tudor trilogy, has already gained 54 4.5 star reviews! He gives insightful reviews of a variety Historical Fiction.

Pat Ruppel whose blog Plain Talk and Ordinary Wisdom has stories to inspire full of empathy and warmth. As far as I know she has not written a novel but I treasure her online friendship for the way she always says just ‘the right thing.’

Adam Croft has written a successful murder mystery series which adds delightful humour to the genre. His latest ‘Rough Justice’ is recently released on Amazon.

Rachel J Lewis whose humour shines through everything she says and will be releasing her debut novel though Urbane Publishers in 2017. Watch this space. Rachel juggles several blogs, organises a Writers’ Group in Ampthill and chaired the Ampthill Literary festival this year. A very busy lady!

and that’s all you can see. Doesn’t the word DISAPPOINTMENT hit you. It doesn’t matter that MARKETING A NOVEL, SUCCESS, THINKING LATERALLY &WRITER’S PLATFORM all come afterwards because it’s only the first five in alphabetical order that show up on the screen.

2. FIRST SENTENCE

My first sentence goes on to say thank your for everyone who supported me. Yes, that’s a good thing to do but what does it say about the excellent content and advice for authors in the subsequent paragraphs? Nothing. Not only that, but it is all a person will read in their WordPress Reader to entice them to read more. Help! I’m going seriously awry here and must put some thought to first impressions.

3. FIRST IMPRESSIONS

As above, but I don’t even have a picture or anything fun to encourage readers to read more and yet it was a post I spent a while crafting in order to help other writers and to give them encouragement.

So, if you want to go back and ignore my mistakes and read my thoughts on using events to market a novel click on here: